Learning+New

From __Effective Literacy Strategies in Years 9 - 13__, Ministry of Education, 2004.
 * Giving students opportunities to use new vocabulary.**

The purpose of this strategy is to help students to explain concepts (including the meaning of words) and to see the connections between concepts (and between words).
 * Concept Circles**

What the teacher does: > > For example:
 * Draw a circle on the board and divide it into four parts.
 * In each part, write a key word associated with the subject content. The four words all need to express concepts that are related to each other.

What the students do:
 * The students discuss the words in the circle with a partner, working out and explaining the conceptual relationships that link the words.
 * They share and discuss their ideas with the whole class.

What the teacher looks for:
 * Are the students explaining the links?
 * How accurately are the students using the specialised words when they are explaining the relationships between concepts.

A variation on this strategy is to leave one segment of the circle blank and ask the students to first work out what the missing concept or term is and then explain that decision as a group to the class.